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Abstract: The two main approaches in interpreting the significance of non-radial fossil echinoderms (carpoids) have consistently produced the same two distinct clusters of results for over a century of investigation. Studies based on conceptual models imbued with Haeckelian precepts consider bilaterally symmetric or asymmetric morphologies of carpoids plesiomorphic for the phylum. These approaches do not find a place for carpoids within an existing phylogenetic framework for the phylum because it is assumed that they primitively lack pentaradiality. Emphasis on differences between these taxa and pentaradial echinoderms forces them outside of and downward from more crownward clades. It is crucial to examine the data supporting these supposed differences. Is it worth considering non-pentaradial echinoderms as members of a well-known group of echinoderms, the blastozoans, which already includes many secondarily-derived, non-pentaradial members? Followers of an empirical model think so, presenting an integration of paleontology, embryology, body wall homology, and image analysis that derives echinoderms from a bilaterian, archimeric larva, not bilateral adults. Unprecedented modification of a single mesocoel (hydrocoel) initiated the pentaradial adult echinoderm, most parsimoniously with five primary lobes in stem forms of each major clade within the phylum. The unique water vascular system led to rearrangement of adult axes that literally have no parallel with those of any other invertebrate, representing an iconic synapomorphy for the Echinodermata. There are few, if any, developmental or stratigraphic data defending carpoids as 'bilateral precursors'. Their free appendage is now shown to be an ambulacrum, undermining any supposition of a 'head', 'tail', or 'gill slits'. Pentaradiality is plesiomorphic for the phylum, obviating the requirement for a triradial intermediate (helicoplacoids) between carpoids and pentaradial forms. Carpoids, a subset of blastozoans, exploited motility as a feeding mode, leading to extraordinary adaptations that belie their interpretation as ancestral echinoderms. 

Abstract: Several levels of the Lorraine Group (Upper Ordovician) in upstate New York (USA) have yielded low-diversity, exceptionally preserved, pyritized invertebrate assemblages dominated by the trilobite Triarthrus eatoni. Sedimentological and taphonomic features suggest dysoxic bottom-water conditions, with limited transport and rapid burial by distal turbidites. Echinoderms are extremely rare in these strata. Here we report, for the first time, the occurrence of the anomalocystitid mitrate Enoploura popei in the Konservat-Lagerstätte of Beecher's Trilobite Bed. A pyritized specimen of this stylophoran was CT-scanned and three-dimensionally reconstructed. The mitrate is laterally compressed, but its 3D-rendering provided several insights into its internal anatomy and taphonomy. The recurved position of the single feeding appendage (aulacophore) is consistent with ligament-induced, post mortem contraction. This posture and the collapse of one lateral series of cover plates indicate that the individual was probably not buried alive. Nevertheless, a portion of the distal aulacophore shows clear evidence of exceptionally preserved soft parts (ambulacral system) in between two sets of slightly open cover plates and the underlying ossicles. One of the most intriguing features of this specimen is its close association with a sinuous, elongated, pyritized trace fossil, which enters the stylophoran through the mouth and disappears into the proximal aulacophore. In marked contrast with other skeletal parts of the specimen (theca and distal part of the aulacophore), the proximal rings of the aulacophore are heavily disrupted and disarticulated. Proximal rings are usually decay-resistant skeletal regions in stylophorans. Therefore, close association of this disrupted region with a trace fossil penetrating it suggests the action of an unknown infaunal scavenger. Location of this trace suggests targeting during early decay of the large muscular proximal aulacophore. 

A search for high-mass resonances decaying into a $\tau$-lepton and a neutrino using proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13\mathrm{TeV}$is presented. The full run 2 data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $139{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$recorded by the ATLAS experiment in the years 2015–2018 is analyzed. The $\tau$-lepton is reconstructed in its hadronic decay modes and the total transverse momentum carried out by neutrinos is inferred from the reconstructed missing transverse momentum. The search for new physics is performed on the transverse mass between the $\tau$-lepton and the missing transverse momentum. No excess of events above the Standard Model expectation is observed and upper exclusion limits are set on the $W^{\prime }\to \tau \nu$production cross section. Heavy $W^{\prime }$vector bosons with masses up to 5.0 TeV are excluded at 95% confidence level, assuming that they have the same couplings as the Standard Model $W$boson. For nonuniversal couplings, $W^{\prime }$bosons are excluded for masses less than 3.5–5.0 TeV, depending on the model parameters. In addition, model-independent limits on the visible cross section times branching ratio are determined as a function of the lower threshold on the transverse mass of the $\tau$-lepton and missing transverse momentum. © 2024 CERN, for the ATLAS Collaboration2024CERN 

Abstract The ATLAS detector is installed in its experimental cavern at Point 1 of the CERN Large Hadron Collider. During Run 2 of the LHC, a luminosity of  ℒ = 2 × 10³⁴cm^-2s^-1was routinely achieved at the start of fills, twice the design luminosity. For Run 3, accelerator improvements, notably luminosity levelling, allow sustained running at an instantaneous luminosity of  ℒ = 2 × 10³⁴cm^-2s^-1, with an average of up to 60 interactions per bunch crossing. The ATLAS detector has been upgraded to recover Run 1 single-lepton trigger thresholds while operating comfortably under Run 3 sustained pileup conditions. A fourth pixel layer 3.3 cm from the beam axis was added before Run 2 to improve vertex reconstruction and b-tagging performance. New Liquid Argon Calorimeter digital trigger electronics, with corresponding upgrades to the Trigger and Data Acquisition system, take advantage of a factor of 10 finer granularity to improve triggering on electrons, photons, taus, and hadronic signatures through increased pileup rejection. The inner muon endcap wheels were replaced by New Small Wheels with Micromegas and small-strip Thin Gap Chamber detectors, providing both precision tracking and Level-1 Muon trigger functionality. Trigger coverage of the inner barrel muon layer near one endcap region was augmented with modules integrating new thin-gap resistive plate chambers and smaller-diameter drift-tube chambers. Tile Calorimeter scintillation counters were added to improve electron energy resolution and background rejection. Upgrades to Minimum Bias Trigger Scintillators and Forward Detectors improve luminosity monitoring and enable total proton-proton cross section, diffractive physics, and heavy ion measurements. These upgrades are all compatible with operation in the much harsher environment anticipated after the High-Luminosity upgrade of the LHC and are the first steps towards preparing ATLAS for the High-Luminosity upgrade of the LHC. This paper describes the Run 3 configuration of the ATLAS detector. 

A bstract A search for Higgs boson pair production in events with two b -jets and two τ -leptons is presented, using a proton–proton collision dataset with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb − 1 collected at $$ \sqrt{s} $$ s = 13 TeV by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. Higgs boson pairs produced non-resonantly or in the decay of a narrow scalar resonance in the mass range from 251 to 1600 GeV are targeted. Events in which at least one τ -lepton decays hadronically are considered, and multivariate discriminants are used to reject the backgrounds. No significant excess of events above the expected background is observed in the non-resonant search. The largest excess in the resonant search is observed at a resonance mass of 1 TeV, with a local (global) significance of 3 . 1 σ (2 . 0 σ ). Observed (expected) 95% confidence-level upper limits are set on the non-resonant Higgs boson pair-production cross-section at 4.7 (3.9) times the Standard Model prediction, assuming Standard Model kinematics, and on the resonant Higgs boson pair-production cross-section at between 21 and 900 fb (12 and 840 fb), depending on the mass of the narrow scalar resonance. 

A<sc>bstract</sc> This paper presents a search for hypothetical massive, charged, long-lived particles with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using an integrated luminosity of 139 fb⁻¹of proton–proton collisions at$$ \sqrt{s} $$ $\sqrt{s}$= 13 TeV. These particles are expected to move significantly slower than the speed of light and should be identifiable by their high transverse momenta and anomalously large specific ionisation losses, dE/dx. Trajectories reconstructed solely by the inner tracking system and a dE/dxmeasurement in the pixel detector layers provide sensitivity to particles with lifetimes down to$$ \mathcal{O} $$ $O$(1) ns with a mass, measured using the Bethe–Bloch relation, ranging from 100 GeV to 3 TeV. Interpretations for pair-production ofR-hadrons, charginos and staus in scenarios of supersymmetry compatible with these particles being long-lived are presented, with mass limits extending considerably beyond those from previous searches in broad ranges of lifetime. 

A bstract A combination of measurements of the inclusive top-quark pair production cross-section performed by ATLAS and CMS in proton–proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV at the LHC is presented. The cross-sections are obtained using top-quark pair decays with an opposite-charge electron–muon pair in the final state and with data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 5 fb − 1 at $$ \sqrt{s} $$ s = 7 TeV and about 20 fb − 1 at $$ \sqrt{s} $$ s = 8 TeV for each experiment. The combined cross-sections are determined to be 178 . 5 ± 4 . 7 pb at $$ \sqrt{s} $$ s = 7 TeV and $$ {243.3}_{-5.9}^{+6.0} $$ 243.3 − 5.9 + 6.0 pb at $$ \sqrt{s} $$ s = 8 TeV with a correlation of 0.41, using a reference top-quark mass value of 172.5 GeV. The ratio of the combined cross-sections is determined to be R 8 / 7 = 1 . 363 ± 0 . 032. The combined measured cross-sections and their ratio agree well with theory calculations using several parton distribution function (PDF) sets. The values of the top-quark pole mass (with the strong coupling fixed at 0.118) and the strong coupling (with the top-quark pole mass fixed at 172.5 GeV) are extracted from the combined results by fitting a next-to-next-to-leading-order plus next-to-next-to-leading-log QCD prediction to the measurements. Using a version of the NNPDF3.1 PDF set containing no top-quark measurements, the results obtained are $$ {m}_t^{\textrm{pole}}={173.4}_{-2.0}^{+1.8} $$ m t pole = 173.4 − 2.0 + 1.8 GeV and $$ {\alpha}_{\textrm{s}}\left({m}_Z\right)={0.1170}_{-0.0018}^{+0.0021} $$ α s m Z = 0.1170 − 0.0018 + 0.0021 . 

Abstract The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider has a broad physics programme ranging from precision measurements to direct searches for new particles and new interactions, requiring ever larger and ever more accurate datasets of simulated Monte Carlo events. Detector simulation with Geant4 is accurate but requires significant CPU resources. Over the past decade, ATLAS has developed and utilized tools that replace the most CPU-intensive component of the simulation—the calorimeter shower simulation—with faster simulation methods. Here, AtlFast3, the next generation of high-accuracy fast simulation in ATLAS, is introduced. AtlFast3 combines parameterized approaches with machine-learning techniques and is deployed to meet current and future computing challenges, and simulation needs of the ATLAS experiment. With highly accurate performance and significantly improved modelling of substructure within jets, AtlFast3 can simulate large numbers of events for a wide range of physics processes. 

Abstract The accurate simulation of additional interactions at the ATLAS experiment for the analysis of proton–proton collisions delivered by the Large Hadron Collider presents a significant challenge to the computing resources. During the LHC Run 2 (2015–2018), there were up to 70 inelastic interactions per bunch crossing, which need to be accounted for in Monte Carlo (MC) production. In this document, a new method to account for these additional interactions in the simulation chain is described. Instead of sampling the inelastic interactions and adding their energy deposits to a hard-scatter interaction one-by-one, the inelastic interactions are presampled, independent of the hard scatter, and stored as combined events. Consequently, for each hard-scatter interaction, only one such presampled event needs to be added as part of the simulation chain. For the Run 2 simulation chain, with an average of 35 interactions per bunch crossing, this new method provides a substantial reduction in MC production CPU needs of around 20%, while reproducing the properties of the reconstructed quantities relevant for physics analyses with good accuracy.